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The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India has asked Palaniappan Chidambaram, the Indian finance minister, to give 100% tax holiday benefits to building companies working on infrastructure projects.

The OECD said Australia should build on simplifications to the tax system made in this year's budget. The OECD suggested standard minimum deductions and broadening the goods and services tax base as possible ways to further simplify the code.

" 'I won't hold my breath and await the inevitable appointment of John Birt' " is how one correspondent finished their her response to our call for suggestions for a new chairman of the HMRC. Sara Hoare, group tax manager of Wincanton, a supply chain provider, added that the new boss of the UK's tax authority should be "the head of tax of of a FTSE250 company or a partner in a recently started small business". Someone else who might be suitable, she proposed, would have "direct experience of complex personal tax issues and family tax (inheritance tax issues, property, agriculture, forestry etc)". Another likely candidate "would have worked in the past two years at Citizens Advice trying to sort out the tax credits fiasco and the horrific interfaces between the various benefits systems for clients at the sharp end". Sir David Varney's ideal successor would also be someone "still believes in HMRC's right to collect the right amount of tax at the right time".

Bill Bowers, a partner at Fulbright & Jaworski, will become senior counsel at the office of the assistant secretary for tax policy on September 5.

Aidan Walsh becomes a tax partner in the financial services group, Jarlath O'Keefe in indirect taxes.

Dan Filby has become vice president of global field operations for Planitax, a company which designs software for corporate tax departments.

Urs Brügger has left Ernst & Young to join PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Mark Everson, the Internal Revenue Service commissioner, will head the forum on tax administration, part of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development's (OECD's) committee on fiscal affairs.

The EU Commission has sent formal requests to Belgium, Spain, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Portugal asking them to change the law on the taxation of outbound dividends. The six countries tax dividend payments to foreign companies more harshly than those paid to domestic companies, which contradicts EU law on the free movement of capital.

Miguel Klingenberg, who is the head of the Spanish tax department, will become the managing partner of Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer's two Spanish offices on August 1.